Renewing Our Commitment

Dear KPL Staff,

In the wake of this weekend’s tragedy in Charlottesville, many of our community members are left dazed and confused. You may count yourself among the confused. You may also be wondering how we as library staff can respond.

KPL has an enormous role to play in these turbulent times. Now more than ever our role as a public library is to help people make sense of local, regional, national and world events by providing proven facts and expert analyses. I call this role “Content in Context.”  It’s the “why” of what happened, the events leading up to the event, the people, economic factors, science, or social movements as a gradual continuum, seen or unseen, that built the foundation for the events we witness at this moment in our history. It’s the big picture, not just the little details that compel us to jump to illogical conclusions. Our collections are full of context. Our public programs are a wonderful tool to connect the public with experts. Our job is to engage our community with our collections and programs. It is not our job to define what people’s opinions should be. But it is our job to provide them with solid information on which to base those opinions.

The public library is also a trusted community gathering place where people might safely explore diverse opinions. Many libraries have embraced this role to great end, engaging their communities in facilitated discussion of contentious issues. Instead of dividing the community further, libraries find these discussions build stronger relationships between disparate groups, promote unity, dismantle preconceived notions, lead to shared vision, and improve civility in public discourse. Many of our staff have received training on how to facilitate this “deliberate dialogue.” Today I commit to moving forward with this important work.

As staff of the Kenosha Public Library, we may feel like our contribution is unnoticed, or too small to make a difference. I assure you that is not the case. Libraries have long been the “Great Equalizer.” The work you do every day makes an enormous difference in your community and in the world. To imagine a world without libraries is to imagine a world devoid of civilization.

Now is the time to support intellectual freedom, and to defend truth telling. Now is the time to renew our commitment to our community’s right to know, to discuss, and to explore the information critical to our collective role as citizens in this complicated, confusing world.

As KPL staff,

• We will welcome and defend every person’s right to use the public library.
• We will provide outstanding service to every person who uses our libraries.
• We will continue to purchase materials from all viewpoints that are written or produced by experts in the field.
• We will promote the materials in our collection that we recognize as useful in clarifying the events of the day through displays, social media, and our website.
• We will continue to engage our community in small group discussion around topics of social justice and equality, the foundations of our Constitution and American identity.
• We will continue to work beyond our walls, striving to connect all members of our community with library services.
• We will recommit to building a better future for the children of Kenosha through early childhood education and social inclusion.
• We will begin a series of Community Conversations that explore our common concerns and allow our community to explore all viewpoints through civil discourse.

Our work can be difficult, but it has never been more important. Thank you for coming to work every day with renewed energy to provide your community with the very best lifelong learning opportunities. Together we can and will make a difference!

Barb